Home Office

Stansted Airport

Robert Halfon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what contingency plans are in place to handle electronic failures at e-passport gates at Stansted Airport.

James Brokenshire: Electronic failures of e-passport gates at Stansted Airport are addressed by officers at the port, who have access to twenty four hour technical support. At Stansted, each bank of 5 e-Passport gates is on a different power circuit in order to mitigate the risk of power failure affecting all 15 gates at once.

Department for Education

Special Educational Needs

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance she issues to (a) maintained and (b) independent schools on recording instances where staff have verbally abused a special educational needs student.

Mr Edward Timpson: All schools have a duty to safeguard all children, particularly those in need of additional support which includes pupils with special educational needs. In April, the Department for Education issued ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ (KCSIE) guidance which sets out what schools and colleges must do to safeguard and promote the welfare of children and young people under the age of 18.[1] KCSIE provides guidance to schools and colleges about managing allegations that a teacher or member of staff has:1. behaved in a way that has harmed a child, or may have harmed a child;2. possibly committed a criminal offence against or related to a child; or3. behaved towards a child or children in a way that indicates he or she would pose a risk of harm if they work regularly or closely with children. KCSIE makes clear the importance of recording on the personnel file of the accused: a summary of the allegation; how the allegation was followed up and resolved; any action taken and what decision was reached. Schools are responsible for determining whether an allegation, including one that alleges that staff have verbally abused pupils, would meet any of the criteria and, where it appears to do so should discuss the matter with the Local Authority Designated Officer. In most serious cases the children’s social care services and/or the police should be consulted. Local arrangements should be followed for those cases that are judged to have not met the criteria. [1] www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education

Foster Care

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many fostered children have been separated from their siblings in each of the last five years.

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to reunite siblings who have been placed in separate foster homes.

Mr Edward Timpson: The data requested is not held centrally. The Department for Education is clear that siblings should be placed together where possible. While the data requested is not held centrally, Action for Children published research on 8 September highlighting the importance of keeping siblings together where this is in their best interests. This research can be found online at:www.actionforchildren.org.uk/news/archive/2014/september/keeping-siblings-togetherThe Department is working closely with councils to help them recruit more foster carers who can meet the needs of children harder to place, such as sibling groups.Nationally, fostering services are improving their recruitment of foster carers. In 2013 the Government announced a new package of support totalling £750,000 to help local authorities boost foster care recruitment by broadening the range of people who foster.This funding is supporting four consortia partnerships of local authorities and independent fostering services, two of which have made increasing the number of foster carers that can care for sibling groups a priority. We plan to share the learning from the consortia in 2015.We would also welcome bids to the Innovation Programme from local authorities who may like to test new, innovative approaches to addressing this issue.

Special Educational Needs

Jim Fitzpatrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when Ofsted will make recommendations on the role of inspections in monitoring specialist education support services for children with special educational needs.

Mr Edward Timpson: The Department for Education asked Ofsted to carry out a study to identify best practice amongst local authorities to prepare for the special educational needs reforms in order to understand whether there is a need for an inspection framework to drive improvements. The findings from the study and the recommendations are a matter for Ofsted. We understand that Ofsted will publish its findings and recommendations from the study by the end of this year.

Castes: Discrimination

Jeremy Corbyn: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to ensure that teaching and guidance is given in schools to ensure that children understand caste discrimination.

Mr Nick Gibb: Schools are encouraged to teach their pupils about the diverse national, regional, religious and ethnic identities in the United Kingdom through the citizenship national curriculum for KS4. Pupils should also be taught about the need for mutual respect and understanding. Pupils may also be taught about diversity and equality through the non-statutory personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) curriculum. The Department for Education will shortly be publishing new guidance on promoting the spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development of pupils, highlighting the importance of pupils gaining knowledge and understanding of different cultures. Schools may achieve this through their whole school ethos as well as teaching of curriculum subjects.

Ministry of Justice

Belmarsh Prison

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the (a) age and (b) offence type of prisoners held in HMP Belmarsh who were under the age of 21 from 23 December 2013 to 9 January 2014 is.

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) sentenced and (b) remand prisoners were held in HMP Belmarsh for the offence of criminal damage from 23 December 2013 to 9 January 2014.

Andrew Selous: Data are held centrally on the characteristics of the prison population on the last day of each month, so figures are not available for 23 December 2013 to 9 January 2014. Additionally, monthly and quarterly trends are typically compared using end of month and quarterly figures respectively.